PRELIMINARY SQUAD FOR WINDIES TOUR

Yeasin gets surprise call up

The Bangladesh Cricket Board on Tuesday announced a 31-member preliminary squad for the forthcoming West Indies tour with teenage pacer Yeasin Arafat getting a surprise call-up. The 6-feet 1 inch pacer from Noakhali hit the headlines in recent Dhaka Premier League when he picked up 8-40 for Gazi Group against star-studded Abahani to set-up a new record for List A cricket by a Bangladeshi.Though he could take just nine wickets in four matches in the league, Yeasin underlined his potential in his only match in the recently-concluded first-class competition Bangladesh Cricket League, picking up seven wickets in two innings for BCB North Zone. Top-order batsman Sadman Islam is the only other player to be included in the preliminary squad without an experience of representing in any format of international cricket. Left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak, who played in the last Test match for Bangladesh against Sri Lanka in February but did not play a limited over game since 2014, also found a place in preliminary squad.Chief selector Minhajul Abedin said they have included Razzak in the preliminary squad only with the Test series in mind.Razzak was apparently rewarded for his prolific performance in first-class competitions, which saw him taking 43 wickets in just six matches of the BCL.There was, however, no room for batsmen Tushar Imran, Naeem Islam and Shahriar Nafees in the preliminary squad, though they put up an equally stellar performance in domestic cricket.‘We are going to announce a preliminary squad for A team soon. We have a plan to include some of the experienced players there. Some of them like Tushar are out of the national team for long time. We want them to come through a process,’ he said. Bangladesh will play two Tests, three one-day internationals and two Twenty20 internationals in July-August. The second string Bangladeshi side is scheduled to play visit Ireland in July before playing a series against South Africa A team at home in August.Minhajul said they will also announce squad for High Performance Unit soon.The three teams will start their conditioning camp supervised by national team’s Sri Lankan physio Mario Villavarayan on May 13.